[Archived] Hack ideas: for those without the skill but with all the ideas.

[MisterE]

i'd like to actually make myself, a super mario bros 3 hack that makes the hammer suit appear as commonly as the leaf or fireflower. i just downloaded a smb3 level editor and it doesn't appear that you can normally place the hammer or tanooki inside the standard sized ? boxes, but that's what i'd like to do.

i would like to completely remove the fireflower and standard racoon suit from the game, and replace them with hammer, tanooki, and frog suits. i would probably judge each item box in the game on a case by case basis to try to make sure that one of each are appearing in early levels, giving you a chance to play them with those rare suits that you'd never get in those levels, and after that having probably a little more focus on hammer suits with occasional tanoookis and frogs (probably more frogs than tanookis since tanooki is basically the same as racoon).

would this be possible with a simple level editor or would it need to be a more involved hack?

[Q]

It would be awesome if someone could restore the anime-style graphics to Space Megaforce and the European version of Super Aleste. The graphics are only present in the original Japanese version (called Super Aleste). I'd just play the Japanese version since there isn't that much text and the important menus are mostly in English, but the US and European versions have much higher quality voice samples. I looked into restoring the graphics myself a while back, but of course they're compressed, so I don't have the ability to change them.

There was also a song that was dummied out of the US and Europeon versions, but someone already fixed it. If the graphics get fixed, we'll finally have a definitive version of the game.

[Jeville]

Any suitable RPG to use Paper Mario's exp system, especially if it's solo or if all members always get the same exp. How it works is it uses the same exp requirement for every level up (100 in PM), with enemies giving less after each level up and they can eventually give nothing. When they start to give too little in a given area, it makes a good gauge to know you're leveled enough for a boss without the risk of being over-leveled. I like the anti-grinding aspect of it too.

[Aceearly1993]

ROM hack of NES Mega Man series that accurately reconstructs Rosenkreuzstilette/Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel into 8 bit (boss/stage trap behavior, soundtrack, and such)

Improve the MegaMari NES hack: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1127/
to make all tracks chiptune version of music from the actual MegaMari game

Oh well, the hack shows limitless potential but the original author seems to be missing...it definitely could be improved but boss AI/behavoir is a tough problem unless to break the game and made 100% custom one for each boss. Could be built on engine of other games like Mega Man 2 or 3 instead of being limited to the first game.

Castlevania Bloodlines prototype mix: Utilize object elements in the already leaked 0.3 version (https://tcrf.net/Proto:Castlevania:_Bloodlines/Version_0.3) and recreate the Zeppelin/German factory scenario in 0.5 version as much as possible. Or adding as much as those elements back to the retail version as long as ROM space allows vise versa.

[Q]

I've been playing a lot of the Street Fighter II games for the SNES recently, and there are some tweaks I'd love to see for these games someday.

In Street Fighter II Turbo, Ryu's ending is glitched and some of the text doesn't display. I assumed the problem was just caused by some typos in the script, but I looked into it today and couldn't identify any errors. If anyone can figure out what's causing this issue and fix it, that would be awesome.

Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers is probably the best version of SF2 on the SNES, but it's missing a few features.

Speed: In Turbo, the speed setting can go up to four normally and up to 10 with the Mega Turbo cheat, but in Super it can only go up to three. There may be technical reasons the game had to be slowed down, but if not, it would be awesome to add the faster gameplay back and change the default speed to three or four. Edit: The Pro Action Replay code 7E00F014 makes the fights run much faster, so it does seem to be possible. There's also an unused cheat code that could be repurposed as the Mega Turbo code.

Victory quotes: In Super, some of the victory quotes that were present in World Warrior and Turbo were cut. It would be neat to add the extra quotes back.

Censorship: I'd also like to restore the two censored victory quotes from the English prototype of World Warrior. At some point, I'm going to look into making a hack that restores Balrog/Boxer's censored quote since this quote is present in Super. I'd also like to add the blood back to the loser character portraits. I'll look into doing this myself at some point in the near future. If it doesn't involve decompressing the graphics, I should be able to do it.

[nesrocks]

From that page: "mirror battles are not possible in this version of Street Fighter II". Huh... Yes, they're possible...

[Q]

From that page: "mirror battles are not possible in this version of Street Fighter II". Huh... Yes, they're possible...

It's referring to the single-player mode. There are no mirror matches in single player. There are mirror matches in Vs. Mode, but the victory quotes don't display there in World Warrior.

I'm also hoping someone can eventually restore the Nin Nin Hall sign from Boxer's stage, but I'm pretty sure the background graphics are compressed.

[PRG]

Some ideas I had in my mind for a while.

I'd like to see a hack for the GBA Final Fantasy games (1, 2, 4, and 5) that removes the gradient on the menu and text boxes and leaves them a solid color, similar to their SNES counterparts. In my opinion, I think for darker colors, the gradients look slightly ugly. And maybe one for 6 that makes the boxes in FF6's battles to not be a lighter color than text boxes and the menu.

I'd also like to see something similar to the FF6 color restoration but for FF1, 2, 4, and 5 that reverts brightened tiles and sprites back to their original brightness. Like, including FF Origins for DoS.

And optionally change battle backgrounds to their simpler SNES versions, just for fun.

On the Dawn of Souls side of things, I wonder how possible it is to replace all graphics and sounds to their NES counterparts.

All of this, essentially, so you basically can play with the quality of life changes and other additions of the GBA versions but with old coats of paint.

[Jaz]

River City Ransom / Downtown Nekketsu Monotogari

I'd like to see a hack that is more than just a simple graphical hack. Anything really!

This game deserves so much more attention, has a lot to offer too. It has kick ass music, large open world map (sorta), fast paced beat em up action, tons of moves and techniques, RPG elements to level up your character and many other games from its series to rip graphics and music from!  The series is still going strong to this day with the original 8bit graphics and feel being used (check out River City Tokyo Rumble and River City Rival Showdown on the 3DS). There's never been a better time to hack this game!!

I can't seem to find any data online for editing maps.

Imagine..

- Double Dragon levels in River City Ransom!
- River City Ransom 2: Slick's Revenge
- River City Ransom with the maps of the 68x version (more screens, rival schools accessible)

I'm sure if the maps could be rearranged a bit, the bosses names and graphics changed a bit, dialogue revamp.. this could easily become a popular series of hack!

Years ago there were some tools being worked on, all seemed to have disappeared, BARF was the name of one.  If such tools existed right now I personally would start my own hack.

[Bregalad]

On the Dawn of Souls side of things, I wonder how possible it is to replace all graphics and sounds to their NES counterparts.

Altering the sound of Dawn of Souls is definitely possible, however I tought a "sound restoration" patch for DoS who'd restore it to NES-like sound would be very low, that's why I didn't do it. Even a version that would restore it to PlayStation 1's sound would have low demand, as the GBA version of the game ceased to be popular since other remakes were made - and those interested in the originals would play the NES originals instead. So yeah, that's why it wasn't done, nothing technical.

[PRG]

Altering the sound of Dawn of Souls is definitely possible, however I tought a "sound restoration" patch for DoS who'd restore it to NES-like sound would be very low, that's why I didn't do it. Even a version that would restore it to PlayStation 1's sound would have low demand, as the GBA version of the game ceased to be popular since other remakes were made - and those interested in the originals would play the NES originals instead. So yeah, that's why it wasn't done, nothing technical.

Ah well, that's too bad about the demand for it. Now I'm kinda curious what the ps1 to gba conversion would have sounded like since I didn't even think about it.

[-dash]

It'd be cool to have a version of Super Mario All-Stars where 1-ups and getting 100 coins doesn't add to the amount of lives you have, particularly in SM3. Would be a very neat and challenging way to play the game.

That would mean 5 lives, period. In SM3 this would have to include the end of level cards not giving lives as well.

A neat addition would getting a 1-up every 1,000,000 points or so (5,000,000? 🤔), but that's just an idea. I wouldn't want a feature like that to be exploitable.

I do really like the idea of getting a hard game over after 5 lives lost, and wish I knew enough about editing roms to be able to do this myself. Please, my dear ROM wizards— cast your code upon my ROM.

[Psyklax]

I do really like the idea of getting a hard game over after 5 lives lost, and wish I knew enough about editing roms to be able to do this myself. Please, my dear ROM wizards— cast your code upon my ROM.

Well, it's easy: you write on a piece of paper how many lives you've lost, and when you reach five, you turn off the game.

[aitchfactor]

I'd really like to see an improvement hack for Gimmick! on the NES.

Gameplay –
Make Yumetaro's attack star spawn animation faster.
Allow Yumetaro to spawn a new star, even if one is still onscreen(the old one should disappear). This should reduce the amount of time a player needs to wait if they whiff a star shot.
Maybe allow a limited aim function? Holding up while launching a star makes it arc instead of heading straight to the ground?
Maybe give Yumetaro more traction?
Allow players to retain the items granting access to the final stage when they continue.

Graphics –
Have some kind of vertical transition that's better than just blacking out for a split second and appearing with the next screen. Maybe a Mega Man-esque scroll, or just a simple fade out, fade in type thing?

Audio –
Instead of reusing the track Identity Believer for both the second phases of the Stage 5 and Stage 6 bosses, maybe use Long Tomorrow(final boss theme) for the Stage 6 boss, then use Strange Memories of Death for the final boss.

I don't know how easy it would be to implement some of these suggestions, but I would hope that at least some of them are feasible and would be appreciated by fans of the game.

And also, before I forget –
It would be nice to have an English version of Perfect Dark with Joanna's Japanese face model and textures.

[#]

Well, it's easy: you write on a piece of paper how many lives you've lost, and when you reach five, you turn off the game.

If that's the level of hacks you want to go for, you might as well not hack/patch your games and just imagine the changes while playing instead.

I suspect though that there's already a patch like that out there for SM All-Stars. But for some reason there are only a few hacks for it on this site, so you'll have to look elsewhere.

[septag0n]

I would like to find a SMB3 romhack that is allows you to replay levels over and over similar to super mario world. Does anyone know if this exists already? I would love it if level design and palettes were still intact, I just want to be able to farm 1ups, and powerups and be able travel to previously beaten worlds.

I'd like to find an NES version, but a SNES all-stars version would be ok too.
https://old.reddit.com/r/romhacking/comments/8igrt5/super_mario_3_levels/

[ToHell]

I have a good idea:

Pocky & Rocky (SNES) Restoration

https://i.warosu.org/data/vr/img/0043/55/1509060345684.png

and Final Fight 2 (SNES) Restoration

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=5984076

[Psyklax]

If that's the level of hacks you want to go for, you might as well not hack/patch your games and just imagine the changes while playing instead.

Come on, I'm only saying that this hack in particular doesn't need to be done at all, as the effect will be the same with a piece of paper.

But you know, your possibly inadvertent attempt at reverse psychology has rustled my jimmies, so I think I'll actually make the hack. It's incredibly easy - in fact, I think I could do it with just a few bytes changed.

So, no 1ups from 100 coins or collected 1ups or end of level cards? Got it. If I have a chance today, I'll do it. Should take no longer than half an hour.

EDIT: Okay, I started on Super Mario All-Stars, but the 65816 can be more of a pain than the 6502, so I went back to SMB1 on the NES. Here's your three Game Genie codes:

GATOZA   start with 5 lives not 3
SZPUUK   100 coins does nothing
SXTATK   1ups mushrooms do nothing

Now you can play SMB1 as you suggested: start with 5 lives, and that's your lot. I'll do the other games in due course, and SMAS too.

EDIT2: here's the others.

smb2j
GETGGI   start with 5 lives not 3
SXIEGN   100 coins does nothing
SZAEPK   1up mushrooms do nothing

smb2
IAOTIGLA   start with 5 lives not 3
SZKOGEVV   1up mushrooms do nothing
SXSVOESE   bonus chance does nothing

smb3
IESZOAGA   start with 5 lives not 4
SXOLYEVN   100 coins does nothing
SXNXNXVN   1up mushrooms do nothing
SXEUOSVN   end of level cards do nothing
SXXSTXVN   matching houses do nothing

Additionally I found two more instances in SMB3 where the lives counter is incremented, but I've no idea what they refer to. I can give you GG codes for them, just in case. Of course now you're past the three that GG allows, but you can always write them to the ROM (or use them in an emulator that allows as many GG codes as you wish).

Also, I don't know of any other way of getting 1ups in SMB2.

EDIT3: added 1up mushroom code for SMB2.

[KingMike]

Haven't you played SMB2 (USA)?
There's a 1Up in a grass patch in the middle of the first level.

Also in SMB1, 2(Lost Levels) and 3, you can jump on/shell kick like eight enemies in a row to get a 1-Up.
In SMB1, it's easy to do in 3-2, and in SMB3 you can easily raccoon float in 1-2 to destroyed infinite-generated Goombas.

[Psyklax]

Haven't you played SMB2 (USA)?
There's a 1Up in a grass patch in the middle of the first level.

Also in SMB1, 2(Lost Levels) and 3, you can jump on/shell kick like eight enemies in a row to get a 1-Up.
In SMB1, it's easy to do in 3-2, and in SMB3 you can easily raccoon float in 1-2 to destroyed infinite-generated Goombas.

Ah, Mike... Do I have to go looking for more now? I was in a hurry because I was kind of doing this just because. Yes, I've completed SMB2, but it was a while ago so I forgot. And I've never ever been able to do the shell kick thing, no matter how much I've tried.

Anyway, the guy asked about SMAS so I should do that as well. But later. (if I'm lucky the shell kicking and goomba hopping stuff is redirected to the same routine as the 1ups, but who knows)